kpete
kpete's JournalREVOLUTIONARY NEW DEVICE? Insulated Cross Arms could speed up connection of new electricity supplies
TUE JAN 22, 2013 AT 09:05 AM PST
The simple innovation that could make wind power a big player
by Keith Pickering
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....recent announcement from the University of Manchester (UK) leaves you with a forehead-hitting "doh!" moment: why didn't anyone think of this before?
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=9384
Insulated cross-arms? Yes!
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A typical high-voltage powerline looks like this. There's a tower (called a pylon) made of steel, with (typically) three pairs of cross-arms at different heights. At the end of each cross-arm hangs an insulator made of a type of plastic that won't allow electricity to flow. The wire that carries the power is hung from the insulator.
It's the job of the insulator to keep the powerline itself far away from the steel of the cross-arm or the pylon, because if the line gets too close, electricity could short from the powerline to the grounded cross-arm. That means the insulator has to be long, to keep it away from the cross-arm. But that long insulator then could sway in the wind toward the pylon, which might also cause a short. All of which means that there's a limit to how much voltage the line can carry, based on the minimum distance the line could get to the pylon or the cross-arm.
The "Doh!" moment comes when you realize that all you have to do is make the cross-arm itself from insulator material, as in the photo below:
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We're looking at the middle cross-arm on the right. Notice how short the hanging insulator is. That's because the cross-arm itself is made of insulating material, so the line can't short to the cross-arm. The line could still short to the pylon, but since the insulator is so short, the amount of wind-sway is going to be very very small. And that means that this line is capable of higher voltages than its sisters, because it can never get as close to the pylon as they can.
22 Jan 2013
A revolutionary device developed by engineers at The University of Manchester and EPL Composite Solutions Ltd. could dramatically increase the capacity of the UK’s electricity network, enabling rapid increases in renewable generation and lower bills for consumers.
Insulated Cross-arms, manufactured and sold by University of Manchester spin-out company Arago Technology Ltd., have been installed on pylons in some of the most stark and remote areas of the UK to test their resistance to extreme weather and are also being tested for an eventual use with 400,000 volt systems at a coastal site in Scotland.
Tests have also been carried out at the University’s High Voltage Laboratory which has subjected them to lightning strikes of more than 1.4 million volts.
Modelling shows that in some cases the new Cross-arms are capable of increasing the power carrying capability of a pylon by up to 2.5 times.
MORE:
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=9384
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/22/1181120/-The-simple-innovation-that-could-make-wind-power-a-big-player
clutching pearls much?
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/01/22/the-big-scandal-of-the-day/
Obama’s green team: He really meant it
Source: The Hill
Obama’s green team: He really meant it
By Ben Geman - 01/22/13 12:08 AM ET
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President Obama’s green energy team all said, in essence, that Obama really, really meant it when he vowed to make climate a major focus in Monday’s inaugural speech.
“We need to make sure that we tackle climate change in these next four years and this president is going to do it,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, wearing his traditional ten-gallon hat and bolo tie, told the crowd Monday night.
“We are going to lift our game in the interlocking challenges of climate change and energy,” said John Holdren, who is Obama’s top science adviser.
“Energy and climate policy are going to be a top priority,” added Heather Zichal, the top White House energy and climate aide.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/278429-obamas-green-team-he-really-meant-it
REJOICE! THE REAGAN ERA IS FINALLY OVER
Obama backs Republicans into a corner
By JOE SCARBOROUGH | 1/22/13 11:25 AM EST
Barack Obama’s second inaugural address was a declaration to Washington and the world that Age of Reagan is over. No hand was extended to a battered Republican Party by Mr. Obama. Instead, the liberal president pushed his left-leaning agenda to a divided America.
As disappointing as his speech was to me, it made perfect political sense that the president would look at the political roadmap in front of him and step on the gas. Polling shows that more than 70 percent of Americans like Obama, 52 percent approve of his performance as president, only 26 percent support the GOP’s performance, only 18 percent approve of how Republican Speaker John Boehner does his job, and only 9 percent still have nice things to say about the tea party.
If that is not bad enough news for my party, the National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru noted in a column following the 2012 election that even the GOP’s house majority is a bit of a political mirage. Republicans maintained control of the lower chamber this session not because they won the popular vote nationwide, but because of aggressive gerrymandering following the 2010 elections. That is standard practice in modern American politics but no Republican should mistake that reality with any positive long-term trend.
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from Politico no less....
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/obama-backs-republicans-into-a-corner-86552.html#ixzz2Ij5ukHxp
No, YOU Shut Up Ronnie, I am still ALIVE, kpete
speaking of Dear Abbey...
“Nobody, in my view, has the right to have 12 children or even three unless the second pregnancy is twins,” Ehrlich continued. “That may be a hard-nosed view, but if you look at the entire situation, it’s crystal clear if we keep the populations of the rich growing, then the poor aren’t going to have a chance, and eventually, the descendants of the rich aren’t going to have a chance either.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/22/population-bomb-scientist-nobody-has-the-right-to-as-many-children-as-they-want/
The Duggers
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20301967,00.html
BOO HOO, Conservatives Did Not Like Obama's Inauguration Speech? TOO BAD!
Drum says, “Did conservatives take these lines as obvious, personal attacks? You betcha. I would too, if I were them.
To the climate change denialists: “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.”
To the neocons: “We, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”
To the voter suppression gangs in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and elsewhere: “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”
To the NRA: “Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.”
To the entire tea party wing of the GOP: “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”
If "conservatives" find Obama's remarks to be offensive... Too bad. Why should I or anyone spare the usual fake outrage of radicals who reject science, equal rights, & peace?
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/barack-obamas-surprisingly-barbed-inaugural-address
The Amazing Grace of it All - By Eugene Robinson
The Amazing Grace of it All
Tuesday, 22 January 2013 11:34
By Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group | Op-Ed
.......
Reflect for a moment: A black man stood on the Capitol steps and took the oath of office as president of the United States. "For the second time." Meaning that voters not only elected him once -- which could be a fluke, a blip, an aberration, a cosmic accident -- but turned around and did it again.
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"My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together," Obama thundered, in a speech built on themes of collective action and responsibility.
Reaction to the address took remarkably little notice of the fact that Obama is an African-American. That seems to be old news.
Not for me, though. Not for a black man who grew up in the segregated South, who attended a rally (my mother tells me) at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke, who lived through the defeat of Jim Crow and the triumph of the civil rights movement.
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The Rest:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/14055-the-amazing-grace-of-it-all
The Onion: 2012 Was Once Considered Hottest Year On Record, Man In 2024 Remembers Wistfully
NEW WASHINGTON—Marveling at how dire things seemed in the relatively stable days of 12 years ago, Alan Gibson, 41, a local man of the year 2024, wistfully recounted on Wednesday the then-record temperatures recorded in the United States in 2012. “To think that we were concerned about a 55.3-degree average is almost comical, but then, I guess at that point we must have still had some kind of perceivable ozone layer,” Gibson said fondly while reapplying the full-body coat of UV-resistant resin he and his fellow citizens of the 43 contiguous United States wear at all times. “Today, you wouldn’t think twice about a 96-degree day in the middle of February, but a mere decade ago you would look up at the skies waiting for snow. Christ, those were the days, man”….
MORE:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/2012-was-once-considered-hottest-year-on-record-ma,30843/?ref=auto
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/01/22/1478591/the-onion-2012-was-once-considered-hottest-year-on-record-man-in-2024-remembers-wistfully/
The Turtle: "Dear Patriot, You and I are literally surrounded."
You and I are literally surrounded.
"run turtles, run"
The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights.
On your freedom.
Just the other night, President Obama urged them to act. And then he went one step further, spelling out the 23 different Executive Orders he will take to get your guns.
http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/2013/01/20/mitch-mcconnells-irresponsible-campaign-email-watch-outtheyre-coming-for-your-guns/
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UPDATE to include:
Rep. John Yarmuth on McConnell’s email: “This to me is pretty much as low as you can go in terms of being irresponsible as a public official. He knows that’s not true, he’s making it up, and he’s using it for his own political benefit.”
Pretty much, yes.
http://fatlip.leoweekly.com/2013/01/20/mitch-mcconnells-irresponsible-campaign-email-watch-outtheyre-coming-for-your-guns/
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